Ethereal Ice
by Nikumareyaku
Summary: Slight AU setting as the battle against Pitch already took place 200 years ago. Jack is already a Guardian, Elsa is Queen of Arendelle. The story takes places after both the movie plotlines are finished. There will be a journey, there will be magic, there will be secrets revealed. Updates may come really slow. I hope that is... not a problem.


"You keep staring at the same spot on the globe, mate. It's kind of creepy."

"Hm… What?" Blinking a few times, Jack slowly turned around to be faced by his furry friend. Bunnymund gave him a questioning look before he landed right next to him with one big jump. After all that happened to the two of them it was hard to imagine they were enemies at first. Defeating Pitch and helping out to strengthen the belief in each other formed a rather close bond between the two Guardians.

"What's up, Jack? You don't usually stay in one place for so long." The bunny was right. For some weeks now Jack has never left the North Pole. Always staring at the lights on the globe. Always staring…

"It's hard to explain…" The white haired boy hesitated. He never intended to stay here for so long. He knew North didn't have a problem with it but the Yetis and elves had begun whispering behind his back some time ago. Apparently the rumors of his unusual behavior had even reached the Easter bunny. Nervously he scratched the back of his neck, the eyes of his friend never leaving him, silently urging him to go on. "Do you see that light up there?" He pointed with his staff roughly in the direction of Europe.

"There are a lot of lights there, mate." Bunny laughed mockingly but at the sight of Jack's earnest expression, he became serious as well. Furrowing his brow in confusion, the older Guardian looked up at the globe again, honestly trying to see what Jack meant. "Which light do you mean in… Norway?" Hopefully he got that country right. Europe was not quite his specialty when it came to geography.

Jack smiled softly at his friend's clueless expression. "Yes, Norway. Actually, the light is located in Arendelle." Using his staff to prop him up, he jumped and landed gracefully on the sparkling globe. He crouched down until his nose was only centimeters away from the one light that had caught his attention. "This one. It's quite different, right?"

Bunnymund's eyes widened. What was going on here? He couldn't remember anything like this happening before. "It's blue…" he breathed in astonishment. And it was true. Amidst hundreds of golden lights, there was this one that was utterly different. It shone in a pale blue color, it wasn't even really bright. It was actually rather hard to notice it at all as this part of the globe had a lot of believers. "Do the others know?"

Slightly ashamed, Jack shook his head with a guilty expression. For some reason he would rather keep this little secret to himself than sharing it with the other guardians. Maybe because he liked the sight of it and wondering who this person behind the light would be and why it had this unique coloring. Making up stories for this special believer had been his favorite activity the last few weeks. He never stopped to eat or sleep – not that he ever needs to, as he was quite dead already.

"Well, this seems important enough to tell them. You stay here." Bunny declared and the next moment he was gone, swallowed by one of his tunnels. Jack was more than happy to stay where he was. Even though he had been staring at the light for so long now, it still held such a charming mystery. It seemed almost like a promise… of a fun adventure. He scoffed at the thought. Every light was a child, a person and represented a certain ray of life.

Marveling at the blue glow a little bit longer, he nearly missed the appearance of his fellow guardians. Whenever they were needed, they would be there in no time. It was truly impressive.

"What is going on? Is Pitch back already?" The tooth fairy was flying around frantically as she remembered the last time all of them were assembled. The thought that they could have to face such an evil as the boogeyman again obviously unnerved her greatly.

"Calm down, Tooth." North' deep voice rumbled across the great hall and he shot Jack a knowing look. Of course the winter spirit's doing here weren't going unnoticed and North more than likely could guess what was going on. "I'm sure Jack would have told us earlier if Pitch was back, right?"

Jack nodded with a sly smile, never leaving his spot on the globe. That was rather suspicious as he would great the other Guardians and especially Tooth and her little fairies personally on any other occasion. "What is going on, Jack?" The colorful fairy sounded quite wary. There was something wrong and she needed to know what it was. Right now.  
"Okay, okay, no need to panic!" Jack laughed and pointed with his staff at the blue light again. "Can you all see that?" Judging from their expressions they could. Just like Bunny before, who stood in a corner playing with his boomerang totally relaxed now, the eyes of the Guardians widened. They simply couldn't believe what they saw.

"What does this mean? Has man in moon said anything about that?" North looked from Jack to Bunnymund, hoping for a good answer but both of them shook their head with a serious expression. "When did it pop up?"

Jack looked up a little startled. "Pop up? No, no, it was already there when I first saw it. I guess it has always been there. Can lights just pop up like that?"

Sandy tried to explain it to Jack in a serious of graphical sand illustrations but as always they were going on too fast and the white haired boy couldn't stop himself from grinning at his friends' attempt. North spoke up to finish Sandy's work and make everything clear to Jack. "Yes. Yes, they can. If a child stops believing, the light will go out as you know. It can shine again when believe is recovered." Yes, that was clear to Jack as this was exactly what happened when they faced Pitch the last time. "But child could grow up without any belief at all, too. If they are older and learn to believe, then the light will pop up out of nowhere."

Jack thought about that for some time but the point in time when the light appeared didn't seem very important to me. It was there. And that was all that mattered.

"There are so many lights up there, mate. And it's only a pale blue. It could have always been there without us noticing." Bunny tossed in and used his bow to scratch a nasty spot on his back. North nodded in understanding and after a short while focused his attention on Jack again.

"Whatever it is, it seems important enough for us to check on. The blue color might indicate that something is wrong or maybe that the child is in danger." Tooth bustled about nervously and her eyes always returned to the mysterious blue spot.

"Then it's settled." North suddenly exclaimed with a loud laugh. "Jack, you found it, you check on it."

"What, hey wait!" This was going a little bit too fast for Jack's liking.

"No, he's right, Jack." Tooth agreed and her next words came out with a sorry expression on her face. "We all have duties to attend to. And yours… can be postponed without causing too much trouble."

Jack said nothing in return, staring at a random point on the floor. Yes, they were right. Compared to the other four Guardians he was just not as important. He finally knew what he stood for and what to protect but yet he didn't play a big role as the others and maybe never would. "Fine…" He finally said and the others looked at each other in relief.

He would do it, travel to Norway, to Arendelle and see what the pale blue light wanted to tell them. What it wanted to tell him. Something inside him stirred as he thought about all his theories about this believing person. Somehow he was afraid all of it would be shattered and he had to brace himself for the disappointment. Also he had to be ready to fight if this was indeed some sort of danger as Pitch had been.

Anyway, he was ready to go. And he wouldn't disappoint the other Guardians at any cost.


End file.
